


Light in the Dark

by Mage0fVoid



Category: Original Work, homestuck adjacent
Genre: Chronic Pain, Eldritch Abomination, Gay Character, Gen, How Do I Tag, Internalized Homophobia, Magic, My First AO3 Post, Nonbinary Character, Rituals, Sharing a Body, Superheroes, Trans Male Character, first serious story, fucky descriptions of things, will add tags as i write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2020-12-15 00:37:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21024878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mage0fVoid/pseuds/Mage0fVoid
Summary: fuck, idk. i had some semblance of an idea like three years ago and busted out seven chapters. then i recently dug it up and re-read it and realized it was shit. most of my ideas are small vignettes that don't currently connect to each other so (Shrugs) but i'm gonna write this, i swear it. there's gonna be some dark shit in here, but i'll add the tags for them as they pop up





	1. Prologue: Who are you?

** _Thousands of years ago, a Crack opened on earth. It was not supposed to be there, because a human happened to be standing in the exact same spot as the crack. It split the human in half, and the creature that tried to slither its way onto earth from beyond thus realm got stuck. The human soul was pulling in the being, and stitching it together with the mortal human. They created a powerful creature that wielded the power of the Unknown, of Shadows and Secrets. They lived as ruler of the city they began to build around them by sheer force of will until other mortals and semi-mortals flocked to the power center. The Being forgot who they were before they became one with each other. The human had all this history to learn from the other being, and the being had all the unique human emotions to experience._ **   
** _ Above all, the new being experienced Love. They Loved themself, and loved being themself. They were powerful, and beautiful, and half of them was oh so delicate, which made them more lovely in the beings opinion. Everything was perfect._ **   
** _ Until it wasn’t._ **

** _Even they don’t remember what the first fight was about, or who started it. But they became disparate. The human body became weak, and unable to properly control their powers. The being became angry at the human for being so careless with their fragile form, and tried to take over the body completely. The human knew if it succeeded, the whole world would be destroyed from the sheer force of their power. Saddened, afraid, and guilt-ridden, the human sealed away their other half, and stole most of its power to prevent the end times from coming; But that much power made the human sick, and killed the last of the humans mortality._ **

** _The human stole away to the shadows of the city they once ruled, with no name, no future,and too many memories that did not belong to them. They couldn’t decide if they were a ‘he’ or a ‘she’; they had been both and neither and everything in between up until recently. They found a place they could hide, an abandoned house that luckily had no squatters other than themself. They used a great deal of magic to hide the house from all mortal eyes, as well as to fix it up so it was liveable. There they stayed, eking out a meager existence from the remains of their former glory and fading away until they were naught but a myth to most._ **

** _A few centuries after this, they lifted their veil on the house. Still difficult to find, but no longer impossible. They took the moniker ‘Mage’, and began offering their Sight into the Unknown to folks; for a price of course. Many things were not at the price of money, Mage had plenty of that. What they wanted were pieces of mortality she could not get back. Precious memories were common, food offerings were as well. Anything a person could put a piece of their soul into, was asked for as payment. If the thing you wanted was something that didn’t belong to you, a greater sacrifice was required. An eye for knowledge, an ear for a secret, a hand for a deal you were not meant to make._ **

**_Mage gained a certain infamy once again, several hundred years after any knowledge of Them had been erased from history. Mage was happy, if you could call it that. Happy to watch the world around them progress, and only offering a few nudges in certain directions when necessary. This is where the story begins._**  
~  
“Miss Mage! Miss Mage! I know it’s early but I reckon I really need your help this time!”

I wake with a groan at the voice, blearily looking around, wondering where I am. _Knock knock knock._ The dull thuds against my door bring me back to the waking world, and I stretch painfully before flinching at the sound of more knocking. So much for getting any kind of sleep today, I really didn’t want to have to deal with this at- I glance at my alarm clock- 5:15 in the goddamn morning.

“Couldn’t have come later, could you.” I grumbled, my joints creaking as I reached for my favorite robe. Once I left the relative safety of my bedroom, I could feel my powers kick in and I flinched.

** _Superhero. Car accident that killed mother. Lived in a rural town. Closeted gay man. Dyes hair and wears colored contacts to hide identity and to hide from family. Takes night classes at the community college. Crushing on one of his dorm mates. Gets income from being a willing test subject. Moderate control over lightning and electric currents._ **

I held my forehead as I blindly grabbed for a mask on my hallway wall, and landed on a black bear mask. I usually pick a bird mask of some kind for him, but he’s pissed me off by coming in earlier than expected. I slide the wooden face mask on and continue on through the hall, I’ve adjusted to Whiplash’s secrets bombarding me finally. I trudge to the main room, holding the wall for support, and let him in. The self proclaimed superhero sits down on the leather couch, knowing I prefer to curl up in the soft recliner across from it.  
I wait for him to get settled before speaking. “it is unwise to wake a sleeping bear.”  
He laughs, it sounds like he’s wheezing. “I wondered why you ‘ad a bear mask today.”  
“Get to the point, Stephen. I’d like to go back to sleep.” I stretch again, less painfully this time, and pull a ledger book and a pen out from behind my chair to mark his pseudonym in it. I look back up and smirk at his horror filled face. He’s never told me his name, no one ever needs to. I already know it by the time they pass my threshold.  
He stutters, and behind his mask I can see his face flush. “uh, I wanted some information on my rival. He’s been gettin’ more destructive than he usually is, and I’ve been barely able t’ stop ‘im the last few times. I really need something to give me an edge, it’s kind of an emergency.”  
It’s honestly adorable that he hasn’t figured out one of his dorm roommates is his nemesis. The roommate he’s been crushing really hard on, no less. I smile behind my mask and pull out the piece of paper with the information he needs from my robes’ pocket. I had it written down last night when I knew he would pay me a visit soon. I hand him the small paper and watch his brows furrow with confusion.

_“two doors aligned, two beating hearts._   
_ A light espied, to one that’s dark._   
_ A closer look where your heart resides,_   
_ lie the answer to your own foe’s plight.”_

He looks miffed as he looks up from reading, clearly expecting something different. “That’s it? How’s that s’posed to help me?”  
“you’ll figure it out. Now get out, I want to sleep before my next appointment.”  
He looked at me like an upset puppy, confused and scared. “Yer sure this’ll help me with Shockwave?”  
“Absolutely. Have I ever been wrong before?”  
A guilty look and a- “well, no. but-” later, and he shuffles out of my home, clutching the paper in dazed confusion. He’s already given me his payment; a memory of him helping his mother bake bread, it left his head as soon as he left my house. I gather it and collapse on my couch, sobbing. Everything hurts. Everything always hurts.

I shakily wipe my tears off my face, shoving the bear mask up to hold my head in my hands. The blue curls adorning my entire body light up with an ethereal glow and I whimper, clutching at myself until the wave of agony subsides. This is the price I must pay. Endless pain just to keep them safe. This is the secret I must keep.

“Oh, come on. Get up now” I chided myself as the worst of the pain left, I had several other appointments to handle today after all. Moving back to my bedroom passed in a blur, and I barely had the mind to hang up my mask before I flopped onto my bed and fell into the void of sleep once again.


	2. Inys

** _ _ **

Inys was not having a good day. He woke up late for a meeting with a client, spilled coffee on himself, his paperwork, and said client, and now he was being chased by a trio of drug dealers down the shadier parts of Solasden due to an unfortunate placement of mirrors.

__‘And not a vigilante hero in sight, figures.’__ he grumbled under his breath some very choice words about the self proclaimed ‘protectors’ of the city, of which there were quite a few. He sped down an alleyway and pulled himself onto a rusted fire escape.

__‘Lord I hope I don’t get tetanus today too.’ __he silently prayed as he scrambled up to the rooftop, hoping the thugs didn’t see his last ditch escape. That little glimmer of hope was dashed against the asphalt as he heard the shrill laughter from one of the dealers.

“hahaha! We’ve got him now”

“Aint’ nowhere left to run now, flatfoot.” the burliest of the three grunts shouted from- the P.I. peeked over the edge of the roof- about a quarter way up the fire escape. Shit. Inys darted to the other side of the roof he was on and looked down, no balconies or another fire escape. No adjacent roof to jump to.

“Shit. Shit shit __Shit!__” he hissed. The thugs were over halfway up the escape by now, he had to think of a plan, and fast.

“__Shit!”__ he repeated, as if it would help.

The thugs crawled over the edge of the roof to find… nothing. Not a soul aside from a cooing pigeon.

“What the-?”

“Where’d he go?”

The small-time drug dealers scanned around the building, peeking over the edges to find… more nothing.

“I dunno man, it’s like he just vanished into thin air.”

They dawdled around the roof for a few minutes more, before giving up and heading back down.

Inys clutched tightly to the brick windowsill on the next building over that were his current and only lifeline from dying on the concrete below. He shakily took a step closer to the nearby balcony, repeating in his head ‘__don’t look down, don’t look down, dontlookdowndontlookdown’__ until he had made it safely to solid steel ground. He gulped in a huge breath of air, God he hated heights. What was he thinking, going up the fire escape to the roof?

Inys let about an hour pass on that balcony before making the careful and somewhat shaky climb down. He dusted off his beige coat of imaginary dirt, and took a second to appreciate the late afternoon sky, before taking off in the exact opposite direction the thugs went in.

“Huh, never been to this part of town before.” he noted as he took in the sights. The buildings were made up of mostly studio flats and apartments that towered above him, wires strung up for drying laundry, an abundance of stray cats yowling from the shadows. Of which there were a lot. This little alleyway seemed to be slowly becoming more shadow than stone. It was, in Inys’ humble opinion, really fucking creepy. Aside from the cats, the cats were precious and could do no wrong. He crouched down to click at one so he could pet it, smiling softly as one came up to him and headbutted his hand.

After a completely necessary amount of time had passed playing with the surprisingly friendly alley cats, Inys continued on, giving a few last goodbye head skritches. He turned a corner at the end of the city block which should’ve taken him to a main road, but instead-

“Oh what in the flying hell.”

-took him to a house, wedged in between two apartment buildings like it had just sprouted out of the ground. The sun was setting now, shrouding everything in a silvery blue light, but the house looked well-kept, if a bit spooky. The curtains in the house shimmied, spooking Inys and making him take a step back for a second. Followed by him rolling his eyes and muttering to himself about how it’s just a stupid house. He took a step forward, and then another. He reasoned with himself that his flat could be surrounded or might be monitored at the very least, and this place was as good as any to lie low if the inhabitants were kind enough; but deep down, everything in him was screaming to run, to hide, to do anything but approach that house. He continued to approach the house.

The wind whistled by his ear, blowing some leaves around in a mini whirlwind. The private investigator pulled his coat closer and shivered before knocking on the door. It swung open, and the feeling-very-much-like-a-deer man startled back, flailing his arms a bit to keep his balance.

“Whoa, jeezums, What the-oh, it’s a mask.” the embarrassed irishman straightened up, and the tiger mask staring back at him grinned.

“You’re late, Mister Plunkett. Come inside before you catch cold.” said the tiger face peering out from a fluffy black comforter before retreating back into the house.

“How did you-? Wait you left the door open!” Inys followed, more than a little mystified at this point. He latched the door closed and followed the strange masked figure into their home.

“I’ve been expecting you for a few days now, Mister Plunkett. What took you so long?”

“I beg your pardon?”  
”you were supposed to be here on the fifth, it is now the seventh. Unless my Sight has gone bad, which it hasn’t, you are very late in visiting me.”

The private eye squinted and tilted his head as he stepped further into the home, making mental notes as he went. Ocean print everywhere, lots of blues and blacks combined with dark wood. Comfortable pillows and blankets strewn around. Well polished coffee table. Beaded curtains blocking view to rest of rooms.

“maybe this has been a misunderstanding? I don’t even know who you are.” Inys held up his hands in a gesture of surrender

“Yes you do. I’m Mage” they rolled their eyes as Inys backed up towards the door.

“No way, nuh uh, you’re a myth.”

“i am a myth. A living one. Now sit down so I can give you my schpeel about my services.”

He numbly followed Mage’s instructions, flopping down on the couch across from them. His head reeling, he took a sip of tea he hadn’t realized had been gently cradled in his hands.

“whu- how?” he whined.

“Relax, and clear your head. You’ll get used to it.”

“buh-” he said, intelligently.

He focused on the facts. Mage, a seldom seen, powerful being capable of supposedly reading into your very soul, was real. Mage had been waiting for him to show up for some time now, for reasons unknown. Inys might have been having a mild panic attack. The tea was Chamomile, his favorite, and prepared exactly as he preferred it. He breathed deeply and let the facts ground him. __‘okay, time to focus.’__ he blinked and realized Mage had been sitting in the recliner opposite him, not speaking. Just, sitting calmly.

“If you’ve calmed down, I’m going to start.”

Inys nodded, and focused on Mage’s voice.

“Do not call on me for favors. I owe no one anything. Do not tell me you’re coming over or when. I already know, it’s just annoying. Expect me to give you what you need, which is not necessarily what you want. Payment will be taken either before you speak with me, or after you leave. Never in between. Prices are non-negotiable, I don’t care if you decide the payment is too much. Above all,” Mage leaned in and snarled out, “Do Not threaten me.”

Inys blanched and nodded. A second passed.

“Wait. Wh-why do I need to know this?”

Mage took a long sip of their tea before responding.

“Because, Inys Plunkett. You are going to become a new regular of mine.”

They nodded their head respectfully at the stunned irishman.

“I look forward to working with you.”


	3. Jessica

For awhile, that became the new normal for Inys. Associating with Mage was never an easy thing, considering their cryptic nature and sometimes only-helpful-in-hindsight ways, but the PI made it work. Somehow.

On another one of his visits, after he’d been looking a little too long at one of the small wood, stone, and ceramic knick-knacks that littered Mage’s bookshelves, Mage added a new rule. One that he found himself breaking constantly, hopefully not to Mage’s knowledge as he tried to hide it from them.

_ _“Do Not Stare Too Long At Any Of My Bookshelf Ornaments. It Will Not End Well For Anyone.”_ _

Many of them where hidden in the shadows in the room, making them difficult to make out sometimes, but others were set on the precarious edge of the shelving, as if they wanted to fall off the edge. Mage would sometimes call attention to the little things by sometimes pushing those ones back into the shadows. Inys thought it was odd, since Mage seemed to be always pushing back different statuettes into the backs of the shelves. The silly notion that the little baubles were moving when no one was looking crossed his mind, and was immediately silenced by rational thought.

It was one such visit that he was getting a secret about one of his mob informants to help him with a larger case he’d taken on at the police’s behest, that he noticed it. A little black feather, carved from stone. If was half off the shelf, and balancing itself very delicately. A dusty ray of sunlight glanced off of it, and Inys noticed the gold inlay around the feather shaft. He couldn’t keep his eyes off it.

If Mage had noticed his staring, they didn’t say anything about it.

The rest of the week went by smoothly, the information Inys received helped (as always), and his informant help up his end of the deal without doing something sketchy (for once). Inys had barely got away from his informant and back to his house before his cell rang and he jumped. The first several seconds of ‘If You Wanna Be My Lover’ flailed through the air as Inys fumbled for his phone and inhaled a miffed breath before he hit the ‘return call’ button.

“Jessica I swear to Christ I’m gonna end you next time you change my ringtone.”

The aforementioned ‘Jessica’ howled with laughter at the PI’s tone.

“I’m serious Jess! I just got used to that stupid Meme song you had it set to,” he paused, looking at the phone in his hand before furiously hissing into the receiver, “And this is my **_**_Business Phone_**_**! You know not to call on this one, what the actual hell Jess?”

“okay, okay. I’m sorry, but to be fair, you never answer your other phone.” jess giggled and continued, “but I wanted to know if you wanted to come camping this weekend? I found a neat little spot that’s really out of the way, so we wont get any moochers like last time.”

Inys sighed dramatically into the phone, already knowing he was going to say yes, but wanting to be a little hard on her.

“Fiiine. I’ll come, but no more calling on my business phone, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt in case something happens.”

“Got it, I’ll meet you at that cafe by your house, okay? Bring your camping stuff with you and I’ll pick you up in my van.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Inys slumped to the couch after hanging up, grumbling about his extrovert friend and fully intending on taking a nap to recover some energy before packing for the very near weekend. For some reason, his thoughts kept straying to that stone feather, and as he slipped into a fitful sleep, it was the only thing on his mind.

~

Jessica Wallent was a chipper lady, and incredibly active, the proof of which lied in her well defined muscle mass covered by dark honeyed skin. She stepped out of her VW bus with a smile and a paint splattered backpack that looked full to bursting.

“Inny!” she waved at the now more casually dressed irishman, who smiled back at her.

“Jess, please find a better nickname for me.”

“Haha, Nope! It’s the only one you haven’t straight-up glared at me for, so it’s staying” she slung an arm around the exasperated man before pulling him back in the direction of the bus, “besides, you need to loosen up more with your friends or you’re gonna work yourself to death ‘cause you have no one supporting you and reminding you to take breaks.”

Inys rolled his eyes “Ugh, I hate when you’re right, but what does that have to do with nicknames?”

“Easy! It’s a term of endearment, so I’m getting you to mentally reframe me as someone you can open up to rather than be professional with.”

“huh” the PI side of him filed that away for later, it could definitely help in his line of work.

“Now! Let’s get this show on the road!” Jessica whooped and practically threw the tall, skinny man into her passenger seat before loading up his stuff in the back and hopping into the drivers side.

Inys readjusted himself in the chair as the energetic 23 year old fired up the car and sped off towards the outskirts of town.

They spent the majority of the ride there singing along to their favorite cheesy power ballads to get them hyped for the camping trip, and Inys began to enjoy himself a lot more the closer they got to the forest that ringed Solasden. (partially because of the cheap coffee giving him some energy)

It’d been awhile since Inys had taken a break like this. __‘this is nice’__ he thought as he gazed out the window at the thick trees and greenery passing by. __‘I should get out of the city more often, I feel like nothing can go wrong out here’__ he smiled to himself.


	4. Maurice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those of you who are uncomfortable with homosexual displays of affection, there is a kiss in this chapter and like, some flirting. just a heads up.

“Oh wow.” Inys breathed out as he followed Jessica into a clearing, having hiked about three miles away from the car lot through the forest. “How did you find this?” he gestured, breathless, to the stone pillars and central platform that decorated the area.

Jessica grinned, a wild grin that usually meant bad things “Found it running from cops. I was doing a mural, one I was actually paid for too, and the cops apparently think I’m doing ‘free murals’ again” her grin got wider, if that was even possible, “and I didn’t feel like explaining anything to them, so I booked it to the woods, and well…”

She gestured around at the clearing as Inys dropped his bags and began unpacking, keeping half focused on Jess. He was used to her brushes with the law. He wasn’t happy with it, but at least she knew better than to get caught at the very least. He had a tendency to be in the same boat sometimes, afterall.

They set up camp with little fanfare, and spent the day inspecting the mini ruins Jess had found. Inys couldn’t get his brain to stop working even if he tried, so this was a perfect way for him to relax, examining a new mystery that didn’t have a deadline attached to it. He made careful notes in a small sketchbook about all the different sigils and carvings in the pillars and made a mental note to look them up online later. He was so focused he didn’t notice Jessica rifling through his things until she whistled at a finding.

“Ooh, Inny, where’d you get this, it’s so pretty!”

Inys turned from one of the pillars to find Jess holding…

“What the fuck?”

The small stone feather that Inys had been eyeing at Mage’s. Flabbergasted, he continued with “How-how the fuck did that get there? I didn’t take it, I just looked at it, what the fuck?”

Jess looked as puzzled as Inys felt, she wordlessly handed the feather over to the slack-jawed Inys for him to turn the feather over in his hands. He looked back up at Jess.

“You aren’t a…client of Mage’s, are you?”

She tilted her head, even more confused now. “you mean that legend about some shadowman that hands out information to you for a price?”

Inys sighed. “Okay, so no then.” inys went back to worriedly fiddling with the feather, noting how it was ice cold to the touch despite being handled a bunch and being inside a black bag on a warm day.

Jessica paused to think.

“wait, are you implying that One; Mage is real, and Two; that this is a belonging of his?”

“Theirs, yes. I’ve somehow become a semi-regular client of theirs. And this is one of the little baubles they have around the house.”

“Huh, I was always told that Mage is a dude. But okay yeah, that’s kinda freaky that their stuff is just appearing on you if you didn’t steal it…did you steal it?”

“No!” inys looked appalled at the notion “I was merely, admiring it, and then I left, same as usual; this was three days ago when I visited them, and I didn’t feel it in my pockets at all since then.”

“weird.” jess shrugged and went to check on the tent.

Inys ‘hmm’ed and looked back down at the feather.

** _ ** _Th-Thump._ ** _ **

He almost dropped it.

** _ ** _Th-Thump._ ** _ **

He dropped it and watched as it flew over to the stone platform in the very center of the clearing. It made a small ‘clink’ as it hit, and promptly melted into the stone.

“um, Jess?”

“Yeah, Inny?”

“you know I’m not a superstitious man, I don’t believe in magic without science, and I believe in reason and logic above all things, yes?”

Jessica poked her head out of the tent, immediately concerned. “Yeah, why, what happened?”

“Something that my very Irish Nanna would say was the result of ‘the Good Gentlemen of the Hills’ and that we should head for the nearest modern building or look for some cold iron.”

Jess blanched, if Inys of all people was getting spooked then something fucky was going on. She tripped on her way out of the tent, just in time for the first rumble to shake through the clearing and knock her down on her side. Inys stumbled and fell to his knees shortly after. A laugh rang out, seemingly surrounding them, as a massive shadow blocked out the sunlight in the middle of the day.

Inys noted that the shadow wasn’t caused by anything, but rather was just a blanket of darkness that shrouded the clearing like a bubble. Jess got off her side and scooted closer to Inys, letting out some panicked babbling about how ‘this ghost can go fuck right the hell off into fuck-anywhere but here cause she does not have the time for this spooky bullshit and also fuck you, you fucking ghost’

Inys felt a pang of sympathy, Jess was usually fearless, unless it was anything supernatural. The ground continued to rumble, and Inys grabbed Jess’ hand to steady and ground himself for whatever might come next as a loud **_**_CRACK _**_**rang out from the platform.

~

** _ ** _Finally. It was finally time. Oh how he was eager to be back, but first, he had a couple of deals to make. Didn’t want him disappearing from the physical plane so soon after awakening again, now did we? He let out a chuckle as he felt a small sliver of his power return to him. It wasn’t much, but it would do. He would have to personally thank the little ones that freed him._ ** _ **

** _ ** _He pulled himself from the remains of the chamber he had been sealed under, the black stone now a pile of rubble. The two little ones that freed him were scared, trying to make sense of him in his incomprehensibleness. “Now, that won’t do” his hoarse voice slithered out from the darkness that made him up. “Give me a form then, little ones, if you are so scared.” he knew the two wouldn’t understand him, but would give him a form from their thoughts regardless._ ** _ **

** _ ** _Delving into their minds simultaneously, he picked out little details he liked, finally settling on a humanoid form the taller one had in mind. To an outside observer, it would have looked like the shadow around the clearing was shrinking and darkening, coalescing into a physical form, a sharp jawline and angled shoulders, narrowed eyes that held something unknowable in them, and a smart and perfectly immaculate suit paired with slicked back hair. He quite liked the form that the taller little one chose for him. He’ll just have to show his gratitude._ ** _ **

~

Inys clutched at Jessica’s fainted figure as the dark form solidified and the shadows seemed to recede from the, man? Inys felt his eyes go wide and his jaw slacken. For some kind of eldritch being, this guy looked __perfect__. Sure, a little Uncanny Valley, and also he literally manifested from shadows that poured out of the now very broken stone platform, but hey. Inys certainly wasn’t gonna complain.

A fierce blush worked its way up his cheeks as he caught himself staring for way too long at this mystery man, finally meeting eyes and being unable to look away. They were so blue they almost looked black, and, oh god, was he __smirking?__

“I should hope you like it, it’s something you chose after all.” his deep baritone rang out as he took a step forward, offering Inys a hand.

“S-something I…?” he dumbly said as he took the hand, Jess still passed out from fear on the ground.

The man leaned in to Inys’ ear and purred, “of course, and I’m glad you gave me such an…attractive form. I’ll have to repay you somehow”

The blush on Inys’ face grew deeper, showing off his freckles. He swallowed thickly as he replied “R-repay me?”

The man chuckled, before letting a hand trail up to the irishmans’ chin “Exactly.” is all he said before spinning Inys into a dip and, without warning, closed the space between their lips. Inys whimpered into the kiss before gasping at a sudden pain in his neck, right above the shoulder. Then everything went cold and dark. "My name is Maurice, little one." being the last thing he heard before his senses left him.


End file.
